The Holy Land of Hoops

2 games Tuesday night...

7pm, Georgetown at #21 Butler, FS1.
9:15pm, #4 Villanova at Creighton, FS1.

Two enjoyable games where we can watch the action without worrying about bids, since 3 of the teams are locks for the NCAA's. The Hoyas and Bulldawgs are jockeying for position, trying to get that #2 BET seed. Love watching games at Hinkle. Villanova meanwhile is lined up for a well-deserved #1 seed in the NCAA's, though they have a lot of games to play to get there.

On a side note, when FS1 isn't televising Big East games, and i flip on ESPN, their games either are between teams i don't care about or they're snoozefests, and either way there are a lot of empty seats. Texas had a ton of empties, Syracuse had empty benches in the upper deck vs their conference's top team. BC at Virginia Tech was obviously a ghost town.

And what's with the Syracuse-Virginia game...? With 8 minutes left in the 1st, the score was 11-2 Orange. I saw a few minutes. Another ACC Bricklayers Convention... 4 straight missed free throws.... TWO POINTS after 12 minutes of action by the top team in the ACC...! And why has ESPN decided to replay the game at 11pm on tape (they've been doing this a lot lately)...? Can't they toss us a WCC or Mountain West game? Yeesh.

billyjack wrote:2 games Tuesday night...

7pm, Georgetown at #21 Butler, FS1.
9:15pm, #4 Villanova at Creighton, FS1.

Two enjoyable games where we can watch the action without worrying about bids, since 3 of the teams are locks for the NCAA's. The Hoyas and Bulldawgs are jockeying for position, trying to get that #2 BET seed. Love watching games at Hinkle. Villanova meanwhile is lined up for a well-deserved #1 seed in the NCAA's, though they have a lot of games to play to get there.

On a side note, when FS1 isn't televising Big East games, and i flip on ESPN, their games either are between teams i don't care about or they're snoozefests, and either way there are a lot of empty seats. Texas had a ton of empties, Syracuse had empty benches in the upper deck vs their conference's top team. BC at Virginia Tech was obviously a ghost town.

And what's with the Syracuse-Virginia game...? With 8 minutes left in the 1st, the score was 11-2 Orange. I saw a few minutes. Another ACC Bricklayers Convention... 4 straight missed free throws.... TWO POINTS after 12 minutes of action by the top team in the ACC...! And why has ESPN decided to replay the game at 11pm on tape (they've been doing this a lot lately)...? Can't they toss us a WCC or Mountain West game? Yeesh.

They scored 2 points in the first 14 minutes and led at the half!!! Then won by double digits! UVA is way overrated. I wouldn't mind being an 8/9 if they are the 1 seed. I see them making a quick exit from the tourny. They go on HUGE scoring droughts.

NJRedman wrote:

billyjack wrote:2 games Tuesday night...

7pm, Georgetown at #21 Butler, FS1.
9:15pm, #4 Villanova at Creighton, FS1.

Two enjoyable games where we can watch the action without worrying about bids, since 3 of the teams are locks for the NCAA's. The Hoyas and Bulldawgs are jockeying for position, trying to get that #2 BET seed. Love watching games at Hinkle. Villanova meanwhile is lined up for a well-deserved #1 seed in the NCAA's, though they have a lot of games to play to get there.

On a side note, when FS1 isn't televising Big East games, and i flip on ESPN, their games either are between teams i don't care about or they're snoozefests, and either way there are a lot of empty seats. Texas had a ton of empties, Syracuse had empty benches in the upper deck vs their conference's top team. BC at Virginia Tech was obviously a ghost town.

And what's with the Syracuse-Virginia game...? With 8 minutes left in the 1st, the score was 11-2 Orange. I saw a few minutes. Another ACC Bricklayers Convention... 4 straight missed free throws.... TWO POINTS after 12 minutes of action by the top team in the ACC...! And why has ESPN decided to replay the game at 11pm on tape (they've been doing this a lot lately)...? Can't they toss us a WCC or Mountain West game? Yeesh.

They scored 2 points in the first 14 minutes and led at the half!!! Then won by double digits! UVA is way overrated. I wouldn't mind being an 8/9 if they are the 1 seed. I see them making a quick exit from the tourny. They go on HUGE scoring droughts.

No offense but I don't think SJU would be a good matchup at all for VA. What they lack in scoring they more than make up in D. I think that team would frustrate the hell out of SJU. Just my opinion but I've noticed SJU lose to tough, fundamentally sound teams who can match their athleticsm. I think exhibit A of that description is UVA. I'd love to see SJU get a 2nd crack at Duke though.

I think we learn a lot about St John's tomorrow night quite frankly. If they come in and pound Marquette I think they could be a sweet 16 candidate. If they come in and are dis-interested we probably have a 1 and done in the NCAA tourney.

About ESPN on Monday's- for whatever reason the west schools have stopped playing Monday games. Used to be Big Monday was a triple header with what used to be Big West games ending it. Then became WAC I think for a while. WCC went to Thu/Sat instead of Sat/Mon when BYU came aboard to avoid them having travel on Sunday's.

Creighton is going to work that 'Nova ass tonight.*


































*No, no they are not. I'll be at the clink clenching.

GumbyDamnit! wrote:

NJRedman wrote:

billyjack wrote:2 games Tuesday night...

7pm, Georgetown at #21 Butler, FS1.
9:15pm, #4 Villanova at Creighton, FS1.

Two enjoyable games where we can watch the action without worrying about bids, since 3 of the teams are locks for the NCAA's. The Hoyas and Bulldawgs are jockeying for position, trying to get that #2 BET seed. Love watching games at Hinkle. Villanova meanwhile is lined up for a well-deserved #1 seed in the NCAA's, though they have a lot of games to play to get there.

On a side note, when FS1 isn't televising Big East games, and i flip on ESPN, their games either are between teams i don't care about or they're snoozefests, and either way there are a lot of empty seats. Texas had a ton of empties, Syracuse had empty benches in the upper deck vs their conference's top team. BC at Virginia Tech was obviously a ghost town.

And what's with the Syracuse-Virginia game...? With 8 minutes left in the 1st, the score was 11-2 Orange. I saw a few minutes. Another ACC Bricklayers Convention... 4 straight missed free throws.... TWO POINTS after 12 minutes of action by the top team in the ACC...! And why has ESPN decided to replay the game at 11pm on tape (they've been doing this a lot lately)...? Can't they toss us a WCC or Mountain West game? Yeesh.

They scored 2 points in the first 14 minutes and led at the half!!! Then won by double digits! UVA is way overrated. I wouldn't mind being an 8/9 if they are the 1 seed. I see them making a quick exit from the tourny. They go on HUGE scoring droughts.

No offense but I don't think SJU would be a good matchup at all for VA. What they lack in scoring they more than make up in D. I think that team would frustrate the hell out of SJU. Just my opinion but I've noticed SJU lose to tough, fundamentally sound teams who can match their athleticsm. I think exhibit A of that description is UVA. I'd love to see SJU get a 2nd crack at Duke though.

I haven't watched Virginia much, but I got the impression that a good outside shooting team like St John's would match up well with them. The Syracuse board was complaining that Cooney and SU couldn't shoot from 3, and Virginia was collapsing on Christmas. But again I don't know much about them.

look at the Davidson/UVA box score from 12/30....
Davidson was 11-28 from 3 point range. 39%. Davidson only lost to UVA by 11 83-72.
Davidson for the season shoots 38.7% from 3...
St John's for the season shoots 35% from 3.... but conference games only 38.3%.

for the season though- UVA's opponents don't even shoot 30% from 3. And they've played some for the season good 3 pt shooting teams.

billyjack wrote:
[ ... snipped ...]

I haven't watched Virginia much, but I got the impression that a good outside shooting team like St John's would match up well with them. The Syracuse board was complaining that Cooney and SU couldn't shoot from 3, and Virginia was collapsing on Christmas. But again I don't know much about them.

I watched a fair amount of this game starting from about the 6:00 mark in the first half. Syracuse couldn't hit a shot to save their lives. I don't recall them making a shot from the outside in the entire second half but looking at the shot chart, it appears they hit two: Syracuse vs UVA

If a team cannot make a shot from the outside, UVA's defense is really tough. Syracuse didn't have very good ball movement either and was completely out rebounded. UVA is good no doubt but Syracuse seemed like their heart wasn't in it. I wonder how different the game might have been if they were eligible for the post season.

mpwalsh8 wrote:

billyjack wrote:
[ ... snipped ...]

I haven't watched Virginia much, but I got the impression that a good outside shooting team like St John's would match up well with them. The Syracuse board was complaining that Cooney and SU couldn't shoot from 3, and Virginia was collapsing on Christmas. But again I don't know much about them.

I watched a fair amount of this game starting from about the 6:00 mark in the first half. Syracuse couldn't hit a shot to save their lives. I don't recall them making a shot from the outside in the entire second half but looking at the shot chart, it appears they hit two: Syracuse vs UVA

If a team cannot make a shot from the outside, UVA's defense is really tough. Syracuse didn't have very good ball movement either and was completely out rebounded. UVA is good no doubt but Syracuse seemed like their heart wasn't in it. I wonder how different the game might have been if they were eligible for the post season.

You missed them only scoring one basket in the first 14 minutes. They scored 21 in those 6 minutes. Any decent team would have scored more than 11 in that 14 minutes. Cuse could have and should have put them away at that time. In the tourny if they go 14 minutes with only scoring one basket they are gonna lose.

While they play good defense they play just as poor offense and a good defensive team (like SJU) can really give them problems.

Well this is interesting, a Big East Games thread turning into a UVA vs St. John's thread. I missed a turn somewhere.

For those downgrading UVA, pick the stats you want for your argument. But then look at their entire resume. They are 7-1 against top 50 teams. If they get by Louisville, at the Chicken Palace, they will be a #1 seed regardless of what they do in the ACC tourney unless they have an early loss. They have played the last month without their second leading scorer and starting point guard.